Monday, November 10, 2014

As the years passed and the sting of
defeat subsided, Dad fully embraced his new life. Nothing gave him greater joy
than being at Walker's Point with his family. He loved to organize tennis
matches, pitch horseshoes, play speed golf at Cape Arun­del (scoring was based
on a combination of strokes and time), and entertain a constant stream of family
and visitors. Perhaps his favorite thing to do was fire up his Mercury-powered
Foun­tain speedboat, the Fidelity, and race through the water with the throttle
at full blast. At age seventy-nine, he sent an e-mail to his grandchildren
boasting that he had topped sixty miles per hour. "I felt about 19 years
old," he wrote. While he fol­lowed politics closely, he was content to
stay out of the arena. He liked to describe his role in the words of a Mandarin
adage: "Stand on sidelines hands in sleeves."

Although Dad was retired from
government, he was not fin­ished serving. He gave his time and his name to causes
that mattered to him, just as he had all his life. He served as Chair­man of
the Board of Visitors at the MD Anderson Cancer Cen­ter in Houston, a widely
respected cancer hospital. He founded the Bush School of Government and Public
Service at Texas A&M, and he loved to drop into classrooms as a surprise
guest lecturer. He supported military charities and visited troops around the
world. Mother continued to serve as well, creating the Barbara Bush Foundation
for Family Literacy and reading books to children every summer at the Maine
Medical Center in Portland. Throughout their lives, George and Barbara Bush
have been two bright points of light.

Mother and Dad have traveled widely
in their retirement. Dad loved to fly-fish, and he visited some of the world's
great­est spots: Islamorada, Florida, with his friend Ted Williams; Canada with
his grandson Jeb Jr.; and the river Test in Eng­land. He kept the family golf
tradition alive by serving as the honorary Chairman of The First Tee and
attending Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup matches. Occasionally he used his status
as a former President to get himself invited to great golf courses like Augusta
National or Pine Valley. And he loved to assemble interesting foursomes, such
as the time that he and Jeb played with Arnold Palmer and Joe DiMaggio.

In November 1998, Mother and Dad
took one of their most meaningful trips when they chartered a plane to Florida
to be with Jeb on election night of his second race for Governor. He ran a
great campaign and won 55 percent of the vote. For the first time in more than
two decades, brothers served together as Governors. Mother liked to point out
that one in eight Ameri­cans lived in a state governed by one of her sons. Dad
expressed his pride a little more quietly. On the day before Jeb's election, he
wrote, "People will call to congratulate us, but they will never begin to
know the true depth of my feeling toward my sons. It will be what life is
really all about for me right now."

I too was thrilled that Jeb won. In
our early years, our seven-year age separation seemed to matter, but as we got
older, we became not only brothers but friends. He is a man of convic­tion with
a great deal of inner strength. I was confident that the people of Florida
would benefit from his leadership -- and I was right. He was a strong and
accomplished Governor.

After my 1998 reelection as
Governor, Dad predicted that speculation about a presidential campaign would
follow. He was sure right. Prospective advisers, fund-raisers, and organiz­ers
all over the country urged me to enter the race. As I told Washington Post
reporter David Broder, I felt like a cork in a raging river. I was determined
not to get swept away. I would make the decision for the right reasons and on
my own terms.

More than any presidential candidate
in recent history (with the exception of Hillary Clinton), I knew exactly what
I was getting myself into. For all the so-called burdens of the presi­dency, I
knew how much Dad had loved the job -- the honor of leading a great country and
the opportunity to make decisions that would change history. After my
experience as Governor, I felt that I could handle the work. I understood the
scrutiny that my family would face, and I was concerned about our daugh­ters.
But I had learned from my father's experience that it was possible to serve as
President and leave office with your family stronger than before.

Mother's example also gave me
confidence. One of her great contributions to my father's political career was
ensuring that he never had to worry about whether she could handle the pres­sure
of the presidency and at the same time hold our family together. That
confidence is liberating. I was blessed that Laura gave me the same peace of
mind.

Finally, I believed, as Dad did, in
living life to the fullest -- in pushing yourself to your limits and working
hard for the causes in which you believe. I believed strongly that America
needed a new direction on issues like education, taxes, and military readiness.
And I believed that I could help provide the leader­ship that the American
people sought.

I never felt the need to ask Dad for
a direct opinion on whether I should run. I knew he would support whatever
choice I made. And I knew from watching him my whole life that he believed
everyone has a duty to serve. After a lot of soul-searching, I decided to give
it a shot. I announced my can­didacy on June 12, 1999 (coincidentally, my
father's seventy-fifth birthday).

I was aware that there would be
inevitable comparisons be­tween Dad and me, some good and some not. He had
assured me that I should feel free to criticize any of his decisions with­out
fear of offending him. As he wrote in a 1998 letter to Jeb and me, "At
some point both of you may want to say, 'Well, I don't agree with my Dad on
that point' or 'Frankly I think Dad was wrong on that.' Do it. Chart your own
course, not just on the issues but on defining yourselves. No one will ever
question your love of family -- your devotion to your parents."

When reporters would ask how my
father would affect the race, I joked that I had inherited half of his friends
and all of his enemies. The truth was that he didn't have many enemies, and I
was able to pick up many of his friends. I had no qualms about Dad's friends
supporting me. I was running against a sitting Vice President at a time when
the country appeared to be se­cure and the economy appeared to be strong. And
as it turned out, I needed every vote I could get.

Pays rich tributes to his father

On election night, Mother and Dad
led a huge convoy of family to Austin. A celebration began late in the evening
when Vice President Gore called to concede the election. He then called back a
little later to retract his concession. My lead in the pivotal state of Florida
was less than a thousand votes -- too close to call. A multiweek recount began.
I asked Jim Baker to lead my legal team in Florida, while Laura and I retreated
to our ranch in Crawford, Texas, to await my fate. Dad on the other hand was
obsessed by the news. He constantly called Karl Rove and Jim Baker for updates.
He called me frequently too. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was
worried. "Dad, I'm at peace," I said. "Stop watching TV."

Eventually, the legal dispute worked
its way to the Supreme Court. On December 12, 2000, thirty-five days after the
elec­tion, the Court delivered its judgment. By a vote of seven to two, the
Justices determined that Florida's haphazard recount process violated the equal
protection clause of the Constitu­tion. And by a vote of five to four, they
concluded that Florida could not complete a fair recount in time to meet the
deadline for the Electoral College. The electoral count stood; I had won. After
receiving the news that I had been elected President, the first phone call I
made was to Mother and Dad. They were thrilled.

The next day, I addressed the nation
from the Texas state capitol. As Mother and Dad watched the speech on
television from bed at their home in Houston, the reality of the moment hit
them. Dad later wrote, "I saw a couple of shots of George and Laura holding
hands. I saw in his posture, in the way he walked, in his smile the same
mannerisms and expressions we have known ever since he was a little boy."
He continued, "As the camera focused on George and Laura walking into the
chamber my body was literally wracked with uncontrollable sobs. It just
happened. No warning, no thinking that this might be emotional for a mother or
dad to get through -- just an erup­tion from deep within me where my body
literally shook. Bar­bara cried, too. We held hands. Just before he began to
speak we saw in George's eyes the emotion he was feeling. We know it so well.
He did not 'lose it,' but he was clearly moved and his mother and father knew
it for fact certain."

Shortly before the moment that so
moved Dad, Vice Presi­dent Gore had delivered a gracious speech conceding the
elec­tion. That prompted an unexpected phone call. George H.W. Bush called Al
Gore to congratulate him on his strong cam­paign and courageous speech.
"I've lost a few times myself," Dad told him, "and I know how
you feel."

Saturday, November 8, 2014

After a numbing fall to the depths of disappointment with Cross My Heart (Alex Cross),
the 21st installment in the Alex Cross series, bestselling author James
Patterson returns with his most famous character in a sizzling sequel
which will restore the confidence of the faithful in his skill as a
master-storyteller, and earn him many more new fans. With his reputation
as the world's most popular thriller writer at stake, Hope to Die is a
high-risk gamble which will either bury the fiasco that was Cross My Heart (Alex Cross) or put the final nail in the coffin of a legendary fictional character, Alex Cross.

Which way will the scale swing?

Simply put, James Patterson seems totally unfazed by the rampant criticism with which Cross My Heart (Alex Cross)
was received. This is apparent as the story continues in the same vein
and in the same JP trademark short chapters. Patterson really surprised
me by entering enemy territory with Marcus Sunday and his true-crime
book The Perfect Criminal hogging the limelight in the introductory
chapters. As the story progresses he captures in vivid details, though
blurred at times by the necessity of the plot, the fate that befell the
Cross family in Cross My Heart (Alex Cross).
The picture becomes clearer with each new chapter, focusing on plot of
the villain to wreak a final storm on Alex Cross while Alex is working
on his own plan to unleash a befitting retribution.

Hope to Die
(Alex Cross # 22) by James Patterson is explosive, riveting and
enthralling with high-octane action sequences, superb dialogue and a
fantastic storyline. Alex Cross is simply superb, as always, and the
pain he feels comes right through the pages of the book. I have always
loved the Patterson books for the simple reason that they are
entertaining. Hope to Die is no different and I get hooked from the
beginning. Pure habit forces me to flip to the last page and see how it
ends. Hope to Die is one of the best Alex Cross novels, with an intimate
and equal portrayal of all the main characters. With a climax that is
both surprising and unexpected, a far cry from the frustration of Cross My Heart (Alex Cross), Hope to Die is one of James Patterson's best novels in a long time.

Monday, October 27, 2014

It's Thursday, June 12, 2014 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr Kay
Scarpetta is physically still at home though her mind has already left
for the Florida vacation she had planned along with her FBI profiler
husband, Benton Wesley. She's in a celebratory mood as it's her
birthday and didn't quickly notice the bright copper coins that flashes
like shards of aventurine glass on top of the old brick wall behind
their house. Dr Scarpetta feels a chill at the edge of her thoughts. Is
it someone merely playing a game with pennies or is there more intent
to it than meets the eye? Why would someone leave seven shiny Lincoln
pennies, all heads up and all dated 1981? Instantly, she realizes that
her birthday plans are about to go off beam.

When a deranged
sniper is on the loose, Detective Pete Marino of the Cambridge Police
insists Scarpetta to examine the scene of a shooting close to her home,
not willing to settle for any of her medical examiners or her deputy
chief Luke Zenner. The sniper's victim is identified as a high school
music teacher, Jamal Nari, who recently shot into the limelight when he
was inadvertently placed on a terrorist watch list.

What is
baffling about Jamal's death is the tweet announcing it. It came about
45 minutes before he was actually shot. To add to this weirdness is the
admission made by one student to the crime, though no one is willing to
believe it. Did Leo Grantz really kill Jamal? What is the motive? As
Scarpetta and Marino delved deeper into the case they unearthed
startling evidences that established connection between a series of
deaths in New Jersey and the killing of Jamal Nari in Cambridge. And it
is up to Scarpetta and Marino to find out the killer and bring the case
to its logical conclusion.

Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell
is the twenty-second book in the long-running Kay Scarpetta series.
This installment is a notch better than the twenty-first book, Dust (A Scarpetta Novel),
though it is nowhere near the readability of the earlier books in the
series. While the plot in itself is engaging and the author's fine
writing style keeps one going, there are a lot of unnecessary details
forcing me to skip pages and paragraphs at regular intervals. If Flesh
and Blood were trimmed down to about three hundred pages or less instead
of its present staggering 384, I honestly believe that it would have
been one of the best Kay Scarpetta novels Patricia Cornwell has written.
Sadly, in her bid to write a heavy tome of a book she has added details
that are annoying and frustrating for a reader like me.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

This period piece set in the mid-20th century about faith and addiction
is so petrifying that author Stephen King was quoted as saying, "It's
too scary. I don't even want to think about that book anymore. It's a
nasty, dark piece of work. That's all I can tell you." For fans who have
missed his trademark spine-chilling harrowing tales with the sedate Mr. Mercedes: A Novel
which was more in the mold of a thriller than a horror novel, Revival
marks a triumphant return to a genre which is almost synonymous with his
name.

Revival by Stephen King is the story of Jamie Morton and
Reverend Charles Jacobs, whose lives disturbingly interlock, with
serious consequences, for fifty long years. Jamie was only six years old
when the Reverend Charles Jacobs with his beautiful wife Patsy and
infant baby first set foot in the sleepy hamlet. Like most people in the
small Methodist congregation, Jamie quickly bonds with the Minister and
his family. Jamie and Jacobs share a lot of things in common, but
electronics was their abiding passion. Things seem to be going great for
everyone.

Though the Reverend Jacobs is an affable man:
well-loved and adored, everything he stands for crumbles under the
weight of grief and fury, transforming even his very own life. A
gruesome car accident claimed the lives of his wife Patsy and their
child, leaving Jacobs devastated. The horror of the accident left an
indelible mark on Jacobs. He begins to question his faith and the very
purpose of his existence, and buries himself in the pursuit of his hobby
- electrical experimentation to tap into the secrets of the universe
which is "one of God's doorways to the infinite." Physically and
emotionally exhausted, Jacobs's harsh experience drained him of all his
faith and belief in God prompting him to give a fiery sermon which would
have made an atheist hang his head in shame. He was sacked and asked to
leave town.

At the other end, Jamie grows up to be a rhythm
guitarist but in a whirlpool of drugs, sex and rock `n' roll, traveling
and performing all over. He's no longer the devoted Methodist youth that
he once was. He has matured over the years and has become a skeptic. A
chance reunion with Jacobs at his electricity-based carnival act sparks
off a chain of events which take both Jamie and Jacobs to the edge.
Jacobs too is no longer the amiable minister that he once was. He has
been transformed almost beyond recognition - a frenzied man intent on
unearthing secrets which are beyond the realms of humanity. Jacobs heals
people with the electrical inventions he has made but Jamie discovers
that there are more to it than meets the eye.

In Revival, horror
master Stephen King crafted a tale of two men brought together by faith,
separated by tragedy and reunited by their obstinate passion for the
extraordinary. It is an unsettling story of a man driven by an
unquenchable passion and a scientific curiosity that borders on madness.
It is a spellbinding supernatural thriller that will keep you on the
edge of your seat with the frightening portrayal of its main characters
and the suspenseful plot which will leave even long-time fans gasping
for breath. Revival by Stephen King is designed to rock you to your
bones.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Bestselling author David Baldacci returns with a thrilling new
suspenseful, action-packed story full of mystery with military CID
investigator John Puller. Just the third book in the John Puller series
following Zero Day (John Puller Series) and The Forgotten (John Puller Series),
The Escape is a book that will entertain and enthrall readers from
cover to cover, with John Puller heading an eclectic cast of characters.
The Escape follows the trail of a war hero and top US army investigator
extraordinaire Puller and his partner US intelligence officer, Capt.
Veronica Knox, as they are hot in pursuit of an escapee from the U.S.
Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

But for
Puller, the assignment is fraught with professional and personal
dilemmas. The escaped convict is none other than his brother Robert
Puller who is a major in the US Air Force. Robert has been convicted of
treason and national security crimes. As John digs deep into the case,
he realizes that there are many others pursuing his brother, and will
resort to any means to either bring him to justice or silent him
permanently. John races against time to find Robert and unearth the
truth behind his brother's conviction where nothing is what it seems to
be.

And finding a man who doesn't want to be found is a tough
proposition. As Puller pieces together the jigsaw puzzle, Robert is also
determined to clear his name and hacks into the national database. To
throw off his pursuers, he has also changed his appearance, but for how
long? Will John find his brother before the others? David Baldacci
masterfully weaves an interesting an interesting story full of suspense
and surprises. Puller's character has gone from strength to strength,
and is likely to become one of the most fascinating fictional characters
in recent years. But while the story is enjoyable as whole, it lacks
depth and heart, and is burdened with excessive details, and many
readers are unlikely to revisit the story again.

Friday, October 24, 2014

In nineteen ninety-three, John Grisham delivers a stunning and suspenseful novel, The Pelican Brief: A Novel,
which revolves around the assassination of two Supreme Court justices,
and the female protagonist Darby Shaw undeterred by the threats to her
life uncovered a deep-rooted presidential conspiracy. Twenty-one years
later, Grisham returns with a female protagonist for only the second
time in his illustrious career as he crafted another stupefying legal
thriller, this time not targeting the highest echelons of government but
the deepest pits of the dark and perilous world of coal mining.

Set
against the backdrop of the Great Recession of 2008, Gray Mountain by
bestselling author John Grisham follows a 29-year-old female Manhattan
associate attorney who gets downsized and is forced to leave her Wall
Street law firm two weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers to work a
year in the small-town of Brady, Virginia. Samantha Kofer's journey
from New York's largest law firm to a small legal aid clinic in the
heart of Appalachia with a population of 2200 as an unpaid intern
borders on the ludicrous. Yet, that is the only possible route back to
her job in the future.

When Samantha meets Mattie Wyatt, her new
boss and the head of the Mountain Legal Aid Clinic, she realizes there's
much to learn and that Mattie has a lot to teach her on how to assist
people who face genuine problems. It enables her to work on things she
had never done during her three-year stay at New York's Scully &
Pershing. Apart from actually preparing a lawsuit, Samantha also gets to
work her way around courtrooms, topping it with a tongue-lashing from a
judge. Samantha's work forces her to get deeper into the problems of
her clients Taking up cudgels on their behalf, she begins her own
investigation to get to the bottom of their stories without ever
realizing that in coal country searching for the truth and standing up
for it means putting your life on the line. She also stumbles upon
secrets that should have remained buried deep in the mountains forever,
and the connection between small-town politics and Big Coal. But
Samantha is not discouraged by the numerous threats that she received
and is taking the fight into the enemy's camp.

Author John
Grisham paints a dark picture of the coal mining industry, the danger it
posed to environment and the lives of people. He is scathing in his
portrayal of the people involved and how far they are willing to go to
have their way, even to the extent of murdering and poisoning streams
and wells. Though a dazzling legal thriller, full of suspense and action
with its plot twists and surprises, Gray Mountain is primarily an
issued-based novel that takes up the cause of defenseless people and the
environmental hazard coal mining has brought about by ripping off the
tops of hundreds of mountains in Appalachia. It has not only poisoned
the ecosystem but is instrumental in the rapidly vanishing wildlife and
threatens the very survival of human beings living around coal mining
areas. Grisham is brilliant as ever but the central premise of the story may not appeal to some readers.

The maverick Los Angeles Police Department homicide Detective Harry
Bosch has come a long way since he first made his appearance in the 1992
detective mystery thriller, The Black Echo. In that premier book of the
series a man found in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam was just another
statistic for the police department. But when Harry Bosch stepped in it
became personal because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam "tunnel
rat" who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war.

Twenty-two
years later in his nineteenth avatar in Edgar-winner Michael Connelly’s
superbly crafted The Burning Room, Harry Bosch and his new partner,
rookie Detective Lucia Soto, are tasked with an unenviable job of
solving a very old case with a lot of twists and impediments. It
concerns a case which begins almost ten years earlier with the drive-by
shooting of Orlando Merced as he played with his band in Los Angeles's
Mariachi Plaza. The bullet that struck him in the spine caused grievous
damage leaving him paralyzed.

When Bosch and Lucy get to work
they are confronted with lack of evidence which make the investigation
all the more difficult. They got a vital lead when an anonymous tipster
informed Detective Lucia Soto that the shooting of Orlando Merced is
connected to the 1993 devastating fire which took place at the Bonnie
Brae apartments that killed nine victims, mostly children. Incidentally,
Soto could have been one of the children consumed by that raging fire
twenty years ago but survived while some of his friends didn’t. The
mariachi musician was a victim of a conspiracy to bury the truth behind
the arson as he was believed to have known the people involved. Bosch
and Lucy also unearthed connections between the two incidents with the
robbery of an EZ Bank.

With powerful people coming into the
picture, master storyteller Michael Connelly skillfully maneuvered this
compelling police procedural with a lot of unexpected twists and turns.
Juggling between suspense, crime and mystery, there is no dull moment as
Harry Bosch just simply refused to fade into oblivion and reinvented
himself through the deft handling of his character by Connelly.
Beautifully written and wonderfully paced, The Burning Room is not only
for die-hard fans of the series but also for new readers who want to
explore the world of Harry Bosch.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

In the village of Lauscha in Germany, things have been done the same way
for centuries. The men blow the glass, and the women decorate and pack
it. But when Joost Steinmann passes away unexpectedly one September
night, his three daughters must learn to fend for themselves. While
feisty Johanna takes a practical approach to looking for work, Ruth
follows her heart, aiming to catch the eye of a handsome young villager.
But it is dreamy, quiet Marie who has always been the most captivated
by the magic—and sparkling possibilities—of the craft of glassblowing.
As the spirited sisters work together to forge a brighter future for
themselves on their own terms, they learn not only how to thrive in a
man’s world, but how to remain true to themselves—and their hearts—in
the process.

The Glassblower by Petra Durst-Benning is the first book in The
Glassblower Trilogy and was originally published in 2003 in German. This
astounding work of cultural and historical romance is beautifully
rendered into English by Samuel Willcocks, and the novel will be of
immense delight to anyone with a bit of interest in German history and
culture. There is much more than I anticipated in the book. Apart from
the joy of reading it, the book leaves a comforting feeling that
everyone can be happy in his own way, if one is brave enough to set
one’s priorities right.

In the book author Petra Durst-Benning
tells the story of the three young Steinmann sisters who live in the
glassblowing village of Lauscha in Germany at the end of the nineteenth
century and early years of the twentieth century. Johanna, Ruth and
Marie must look after themselves when their father Joost Steinmann
passes away unexpectedly one September night. But making a livelihood in
the village is easier said than done as glassblowing is a
male-dominated craft. The Steinmann sisters are so well-conceived and
developed that their characters are so lifelike and believable. As you
leaf through the pages, you will laugh and cry with them, and at times
feel the need to reprove them.

Beautifully written and
well-researched, Petra Durst-Benning painted a sweeping portrait of the
fascinating characters that populated the book as well as the profession
which they are involved in. The Glassblower is a fascinating lesson in
German culture and history, and without ever exceeding the limit of
credibility, the author brilliantly crafted a powerful story of women’s
emancipation, the ideals and aspiration that is burning within each
individual even within the confines of a hopeless situation and how one
can be happy and content in one’s condition if one’s heart is in it.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

I suppose there’s always a story, isn’t there? Best Seller is my fifth novel. When I’d written my first novel, Chocolate forBreakfast,
I had high hopes and very naïve aspirations about its success. I
connected with favorite authors online and sent personal messages when I
read and enjoyed their books. I posted reviews, and suggested to my
online friends that they read this particular book. I did what I was
supposed to do in order to build a platform.So, when my first book was released, I went to two or three of
these favorite authors and asked if they’d be willing to read and review
it. And imagine my surprise when they declined! They were always polite
about it, or indicated they didn’t have the time, but it hurt.

I took that tiny piece of reality and created a novel (Best Seller)
from it. One where a young woman who doesn’t even realize how talented a
writer she is pins all her hopes on the possibility that her favorite
author will read her manuscript and love it so much that she’ll open
doors for her. Doesn’t every aspiring author (actor, musician) hope for a
similar stroke of good fortune?

So that’s where the story originated. That’s the small kernel
of truth that blossomed into a novel. But the real story isn’t so much
about Robin and her book as it is about Robin’s journey into adulthood,
her reconciliation with people she’d pushed away.

ABOUT THE BOOK:Set in New England at the time of the American Bicentennial, BEST SELLER
is the poignant story of a displaced young woman struggling to figure
out who she is within the context of her hometown and the carefully
masked dysfunction of her family.

"Everything can be fixed by writing a check." Words to live by for Robin
Fortune's wealthy father, until he can't buy her way back into college
after she's expelled for dealing pot. Now he chooses not to speak to her
anymore, but that's just one of the out-of-whack situations Robin's
facing. At nineteen, she feels rudderless, working in a diner by day and
sleeping with a buddy from high school by night - all so strange for
her because she was always the one with the plan. While her college
friends plotted how to ensnare husbands, she plotted a novel, which she
scratched out into a series of spiral-bound notebooks she hides in the
closet. But now, there's nothing. No vision, no future, no point. In
fact, the only thing she feels she has to look forward to is that her
favorite author, Maryana Capture, is paying a visit to the local
Thousand Words bookstore. Robin surmises that if she can convince
Maryana to help her get her novel published, she'll finally get herself
back on track. Except that life never takes a straight path in this
intensely satisfying coming-of-age novel.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Martha
Reynolds ended an accomplished career as a fraud investigator and began
writing full time in 2011. She is the author of five novels, including
the award-winning Chocolate for Breakfast (her debut novel), Chocolate Fondue, Bittersweet Chocolate, and the Amazon #1 bestseller Bits of Broken Glass. Best Seller is her latest release. Her essays have appeared in Magnificat magazine.She and her husband live in Rhode Island, never far from the ocean.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

A dark and electrifying novel about addiction, fanaticism, and what might exist on the other side of life.

In
a small New England town, over half a century ago, a shadow falls over a
small boy playing with his toy soldiers. Jamie Morton looks up to see a
striking man, the new minister. Charles Jacobs, along with his
beautiful wife, will transform the local church. The men and boys are
all a bit in love with Mrs. Jacobs; the women and girls feel the same
about Reverend Jacobs—including Jamie’s mother and beloved sister,
Claire. With Jamie, the Reverend shares a deeper bond based on a secret
obsession. When tragedy strikes the Jacobs family, this charismatic
preacher curses God, mocks all religious belief, and is banished from
the shocked town.

Jamie has demons of his own. Wed to his guitar
from the age of 13, he plays in bands across the country, living the
nomadic lifestyle of bar-band rock and roll while fleeing from his
family’s horrific loss. In his mid-thirties—addicted to heroin,
stranded, desperate—Jamie meets Charles Jacobs again, with profound
consequences for both men. Their bond becomes a pact beyond even the
Devil’s devising, and Jamie discovers that revival has many meanings.

This
rich and disturbing novel spans five decades on its way to the most
terrifying conclusion Stephen King has ever written. It’s a masterpiece
from King, in the great American tradition of Frank Norris, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Good Music Brighter Children is written for parents, educators or anyone who wants to build a bigger, better brain using music. Scientific studies indicate that children introduced to classical music at a young age read earlier and perform better on achievement tests. Adults can also revive tired brain cells using music. This book gives you a step-by-step program that any parent or individual can follow. You’ll discover how introducing your children to good music can accelerate language development, improve math and science skills, enhance physical coordination, strengthen memory and reading retention, and benefit children with learning disabilities. Discover how to choose an instrument and music teacher for your child; how to get your kids to practice and how character traits such as confidence, responsibility, creativity and teamwork are taught when learning a musical instrument. Learn how to introduce your child to the music community and how to appreciate all kinds of music. Last, if you want to advocate for music in your schools, this book gives the ammunition and data to do so. Also includes a 35-page Resource Section on the best music, books, and DVDs for kids.

Sharlene Habermeyer, MA has spent over twenty-five years researching the effects of music in the brain development of children. She is passionate about how people of all ages learn and how music is a catalyst for learning. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in Art from Utah State University and a Masters degree in Education from Pepperdine University, Malibu, California.
In 1999, she started the Palos Verdes Regional Orchestra (now the Palos Verdes Regional Symphony Orchestra). It currently boasts over one-hundred members.
Sharlene’s initial inspiration for Good Music Brighter Children came from the extensive work she did with her severely learning disabled son, and finding that music was his strongest catalyst for learning she began passionately researching the effects music had on the developing and mature brain.
A college instructor, a popular speaker, and a consultant, she is the mother of five boys and lives with her husband in Torrance, California. She has spoken at parent conferences around the United States including the Parents as Teachers Conference (PAT) and the Crucial Years Conference in Missouri. In August 2014, she will be speaking at BYU Education Week.

Praise for the Book Largest Independent Book Reviewer in the U.S.: Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media, LLC
“With a scientist’s eye and an artist’s voice, Habermeyer examines everything from the benefits of music for the developing brain to music’s ability to improve cultural awareness. This is an encyclopedic, invaluable resource for anyone who believes in music education. A magnum opus, fact-filled and inspiring on the benefits of music.”
-Kirkus Indie, Kirkus Media, LLC

National Music Organization: Music and the Brain
“A great resource for both parents and teachers. Anyone interested in music or the overall well-being of children will not be able to put this book down.”
-Lisha Papert Lercari, Director, Music and the Brain

University Professor: Dr. James Catterall
Sharlene Habermeyer outlines why music is important to learning, and provides parents with excellent suggestions for launching and sustaining a musical influence in the lives of their children.”
-James S. Catterall, professor of education and co-director of Imagination Project at UCLA

Mother/Lawyer/Ballet Teacher: Shauna Bird Dunn
“Carefully researched and highly readable, Good Music, Brighter Children is written for musicians and non musicians alike. It is filled with wisdom, insight and helpful tips to bring music into the home for all ages and stages of childhood.”
-Shauna Bird Dunn, JD, MPAUtah Young Mother of the Year, 2010

Unfortunately,
I haven’t really had much time to read recently mainly due to juggling
school, writing and extracurricular activities. What makes it worse is
that I’ll buy books even though I haven’t got the time, so I’m currently
backlogged—I have about twenty books I need to read! I have read quite a
few that I enjoyed, though, and I’ll be sharing two of them.

The first is the latest novel I finished reading back in August: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) by George Orwell. It
follows the story of Winston Smith, a man who lived in a British
dystopia. The government (Big Brother) has a secret police, uses
indoctrination/brainwashing and propaganda to oppress the population.
The novel demonstrates the dangers of any totalitarian government, be it
Communist or Fascist. While the story’s pace was slower than what I am
into and there wasn’t much dialogue, what I found intriguing was the
concept behind the story. It was a bit creepy, no doubt, because it
depicts a dystopian society of the not-so-distant which is quite
possible. And it’s strange, as some things have already begun to unfold
in our world, i.e. government surveillance of the regular folk by means
of technology. The story did not have a happy ending, but I find that
books, movies and TV shows that do not have conclusions with rainbows
and unicorns are actually quite memorable.

The second novel is either one that people seem to like or hate, and that would be Hidden Empire by Orson Scott Card. It follows the events of Empire
(which I very much enjoyed as well) and depicts a future after an
American civil war between the red states and blue states with a
‘bipartisan consensus’ president who seems to be interested in turning
the States into a global empire; democracy is kept solely as a facade. This
novel didn’t have a happy ending either, but I liked it nonetheless
because it shows the dangers of politics and war, but was
action-oriented and about people stepping up to make hard decisions and
sacrifices (some of which the reader may not like, but understands).

S.S.Segran is the bestselling author of AEGIS RISING, the first book in
the Aegis League Series. In crafting the premise for the novel, she drew
from the inspiring imagery of the Pacific Northwest, the intriguing
potential of the human mind and above all, her abiding love for
adventure, science fiction and mystery stories. She enjoys drawing,
horseback riding and is an ardent fan of parkour and freerunning.
S.S.Segran is a proud member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets in British
Columbia.

S.S.Segran is also the founder of Aegis League (www.aegisleague.org),
a non-profit organization whose goal is to support youths living in
places and conditions that deny them opportunities to grow. The mission
of the organization is to provide life-skills training and micro-loan
funding to help them launch small businesses in the communities where
they reside. Partial proceeds from the sale of her books go to this
cause.

Monday, September 29, 2014

John Grisham has a new hero . . . and she’s full of surprises The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a
huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track—until the recession hits
and she gets downsized, furloughed, escorted out of the
building. Samantha, though, is one of the “lucky” associates. She’s
offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year
without pay, after which there would be a slim chance that she’d get her
old job back.

In a matter of days Samantha moves from Manhattan
to Brady, Virginia, population 2,200, in the heart of Appalachia, a part
of the world she has only read about. Mattie Wyatt, lifelong Brady
resident and head of the town’s legal aid clinic, is there to teach her
how to “help real people with real problems.” For the first time in her
career, Samantha prepares a lawsuit, sees the inside of an actual
courtroom, gets scolded by a judge, and receives threats from locals who
aren’t so thrilled to have a big-city lawyer in town. And she learns
that Brady, like most small towns, harbors some big secrets.

Her
new job takes Samantha into the murky and dangerous world of coal
mining, where laws are often broken, rules are ignored, regulations are
flouted, communities are divided, and the land itself is under attack
from Big Coal. Violence is always just around the corner, and within
weeks Samantha finds herself engulfed in litigation that turns deadly.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Almost a century ago in January 1920, the famous fictional Belgian
detective Hercule Poirot was introduced by Agatha Christie in the novel
The Mysterious Affair at Styles. After forty-two adventure-filled novels
set between World War I and World War II, with some of the later novels
set in the 1960s, The New York Times splashed an obituary on its front
page when he died of heart complications in the final novel Curtain
which was published in September 1975.

Almost forty years later,
detective Hercule Poirot is resurrected and makes a triumphant return in
The Monogram Murders: The New Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot Mystery by
poet and crime novelist Sophie Hannah. Best known for relying on his
`little grey cells' for solving crimes, the story is set in the early
years of Poirot's career and is told from the perspective of a new
character, Inspector Edward Catchpool of the Scotland Yard, from whom
Poirot takes over a case concerning a troubling series of murders as
it's "a diabolically clever puzzle that can only be solved by the
talented Belgian detective."

The Monogram Murders is a classic
Christie novel and begins on an ominous note when one February evening
in 1929 a distraught woman named Jennie enters a London coffee shop
where Hercule Poirot is having a quiet supper. With a disheveled
appearance and strange look, it's not difficult to guess she's
terrified. When Poirot offers to help her, Jennie made cryptic and
puzzling remarks and was adamant that no one can help her because she's
as good as dead and that the crime must never be solved. When two women
and a man are found murdered in three separate rooms about the same time
in a hotel with monogrammed gold cuff links inserted into their mouths
that same night, it becomes all too apparent that no ordinary sleuthing
work will help solve the case.

Detective Poirot is unable to make
sense of the murders and wonders if it has any connection with the
woman he encountered at the coffee shop. While he tries to piece
together the jigsaw puzzle, the murderer is preparing to snuff the life
out of a fourth victim. The story follows Poirot as he wades through
layer after layer of baffling clues and mysteries in his quest to solve
the strange murders and it will require all his wit, wisdom, brilliance,
subtlety, creativity and deductive prowess if he is to find the
murderer before it's too late.

Bestselling author Sophie Hannah's
fine writing and the compelling plot line are the strong points of this
new Hercule Poirot mystery. Recreating and resurrecting an iconic
detective who has been laid to rest by the queen of crime is a daunting
task, yet Sophie has done a commendable job by going back to the early
years of Poirot's career which has allowed her the freedom to toy around
with her characters and at the same time avoid the pitfalls of having
to deal with his death. What we have in the end is an absorbing story
true to the legacy of its original writer, and in the process created a
major event for crime fiction lovers the world over.

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